"The point for us all, perhaps, is to never give up on life and never to doubt that every bit of kindness, every tender touch we lay upon another in life can heal what might otherwise have died, certainly in them, perhaps even in ourselves."
Sister Joan Chittister, The Rule of St. Benedict
In this manner, we can all be activists. Last week, in a skilled nursing community, one of the residents told me that she was happy being there. We both smiled, but I did feel my eyebrows raise. She shyly said, "I know; that was not the case in the beginning." Yet, in the few months that had passed since her somewhat stormy arrival, she found herself falling in love with her fellow residents, and staff members. That is healing on a deep level; the kind of healing that changes the lives of not only those who are healed, but others around them. She, too, will become a healer. I have a sense of God's healing as a trade wind; it cannot be seen, but it moves perpetually through our lives wherever we are, and always brings us to love.
As we move through this day, let us practice kindness. We just never know whom it will touch, and change. Christians, let us be Christ, so Buddhists can be Buddhas, and in all walks of faith and life people can live into their best selves.
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